Advertisers, bloggers, and other individuals and organizations that provide digital content generally seek ways to engage users' attention. Content providers may seek to capture users' attention by displaying images on a webpage. Users may then feel prompted to interact with the image and/or other content associated with the image.
Unfortunately, users' computing devices may be subject to conditions that cause images to load slowly. For example, mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones and/or tablets) may have access to limited bandwidth, thereby impeding the transfer of image data. Likewise, a spike in network traffic may reduce the responsiveness of a server, which may delay the transmission of image data. Content providers may nevertheless attempt to capture user attention by providing some sort of indication that an image will be displayed. For example, content providers may place alternate text within an image frame to provide a brief description of the image that will ultimately appear within the image frame. However, traditional placeholders may appear out of place, may signal to the user that content is failing to load, and/or may otherwise fail to engage the user. Accordingly, a user may lose patience with slow-loading content rather than waiting for the image to load. The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for improved systems and methods for approximating an image.